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Roots of our intolerance
An Islamic state nurtures a conservative society to ensure its survival and keep its central dogma from being altered.
The writer is a director at the South Asia Free Media Association, Lahore khaled.ahmed@tribune.com.pk
Pakistan is worried about the rising intolerance in its society. It is a collective version of hate, but is a natural human instinct at the level of the individual. If someone hurts you, it will be your natural response to hate him. At the collective level, however, you can hate someone without first being hurt by him. As an individual, you might hurt the man back; but as a part of the collective identity, you might even kill someone who has done you no harm.
Intolerance worries because it carries violence in its wake. It concerns identity and targets those who seem different, just like animals. In his seminal work Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny (WW Norton 2006), Amartya Sen says tolerance of an identity different from your own, is possible if you cultivate many identities within yourself.
But some states cultivate an intense single identity under nationalism and open the door to what is called exclusion — exclusion of those who are different, like non-Muslims in the Muslim state. The non-Muslims are ‘separated’ on the Pakistani flag by their placement in the white patch, a kind of symbolic ghettoisation. States have been damaged by their intense single identity and have learnt to practise pluralism, which means the state treats all its different inhabitants alike.
But intolerance springs from other sources as well. One source is the traditional society where conservatism, as opposed to modernism, is the natural instinct. A traditional society seeks to interpret the present as an extension of the past; a modern society will connect the present with the future. The conservative person, dwelling on the past, will cultivate certitude as his basis of argument; the modern man, uncertain about the future and accepting social change, will cultivate uncertainty or doubt as the basis of his argument. It is self-doubt and questioning that causes one to accept someone who is different.
An Islamic state will nurture a conservative society to ensure its survival and to keep its central dogma from being altered in the light of changing circumstances. To ensure the linkage with the ‘ideal past’, it will describe a trajectory that tightens rather than loosens the state’s laws. The Muslim mind inclines to a ‘hardening’ of the trajectory of evolution to achieve perfection; the idea of perfection in the modern world is couched in a ‘softening’ trajectory. Pakistan’s evolution is described by a hardening of its religious ideology, from the Objectives Resolution in 1949 to the Blasphemy Law in 1991.
In the modern state, the constitution is usually tough followed by ‘softening’ amendments. In Pakistan, the constitution was soft to begin with; then the amendments took away rights instead of bestowing more of them. Intolerance is embedded in the evolution of the Islamic state. After General Zia’s Islamisation, the next stage in Pakistan’s evolution is signalled in the ideology of the Taliban, who want the country converted to an emirate.
Certainty is at the root of intolerance because it makes you judgemental, that is, judging those unlike you. The habit of doubt and questioning causes tolerance of that which is different. Certainty closes the mind and gives rise to two tendencies: Rejection of the variant point of view and the forcible imposition of one’s own view on others. Both these traits are contained in the personality of the ideological state.
Certainty closes the mind and makes religion redundant. Reading the Holy Quran with a closed mind can be dangerous. A Barelvi reading it will identify his Barelvi world view in it; the Deobandi reading it will extract anti-Barelvi lessons from it. The Muslim mind is closed by certainty.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 22nd, 2011.
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Reader Comments (31)
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Imam Ali (as) once said to the Christians
“You may not be my brothers in faith, but you are my brothers in humanity.”Recommend
I believe, you mean certainty as in the “taking-things-into-their-own-conservative-world-view” sense? All the same, a good read, and an insight into the psychologically “left-behind” world view. Appreciate it.Recommend
The intolerance exhibited by most Islamic societies stems from the self righteousness so apparent in the Musalmans of today. How can one achieve any sense of plurality with the other when you consider them inferior and misguided merely awaiting the ‘truth’ that is Islam?Recommend
Another useless article with no solution.Recommend
There is also something quite curious about the semitic religion’s abhorrence or general intolerance of forms of worship that are different from their own – such as the use of idols. The Jewish God – “El Shadei”, and the Islamic God – “Allah”, both can be linguistically traced back to derive from the Canaanite god “El” – in the Islamic case, Bedouin tribes addressed “El” as “Illahi” – later transforming to Allah.
If one looks closely at the supreme Cannanite god El – he has the distinguishing features of wearing a cap and having a beard – symoblic of those following the orthodox versions of their respective religions within the Semitic tradition.
A picture of El is found here –
http://www.gailallen.com/images/rel/God-El.jpg
and here:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Gebelel-ArakKnifebackside.jpgRecommend
You have hit the nail on its head. Theocracies like other forms of fascism survive on the identity of a common enemy and zealous ideology. This leads to their certain destruction like it did for the nazi Germany. You can never be aryan or muslim enough.Recommend
you failed to mention that an ideal Islamic state is also a welfare state that rests on the foundation of faith, justice and morality(based on its own value-system)Recommend
this is why I read Pakistani news. at least something worth of time unlike my Indian news like TOI or NDTV….Recommend
Kudos to Mr. Khaled Ahmed for an excellent write up.
“Believe those that seek the truth. Doubt those who find it” – Andre Gide.Recommend
Really good points. I can tell the writer is being really cautious as to not offend the muslims.
We, as a people, are extremely intolerant…and educations with an open mind is the key to getting out of this jail of a state-of-mind.Recommend
very well written and thoughtful. Its time for many of us to look inwards and define who we are. Over the decades our politicians, military and overzealous mullahs have distanced ourselves from the peaceful, tolerant civilization of Indus and Ganga and forcefully shifted us towards the arab way of living. The result is that we have lost our identity. We neither belong to subcontinent nor belong to the arab world, nor the modern nations like Turkey, Malasia, Indonesia. Stuck in the middle, we try to find solace in religion and blind faith, and of course to prove our weak point, we need to shout louder and prove that we are better muslims that rest of the ummah. We have taken the theka of entire muslim world while the remaining 52 muslim countries are acting only to their own national interest. The article is an eye opener.Recommend
Intolerance for people from other faiths has been in practice from time immemorial and the religous inferno spread by the interpretation of Judaic, Christian, Hindu or Islamic belief by the scholars, gurus, pandits rabbis and clergy have made the human race barbaric. In the 20th century, we witnessed the defeat of colonialism, rise of nationalism and fascism birth of communism and now in the 21st century, we have a new globe, a unipolar world dominated by Christian and Zionist ideologies.
For many centuries Muslims, Christians and Jews living in a pre-modern world or conservative world lived in peace and harmony. It is not just modernism which can transform a society. The ills of this modern world lies in the religous character of the modern world and the rise of religous tide in the West to defend their imperial attitudes, and subsequent rise of religousity in the East (Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism) as an anger against their past masters.
What happened in Pakistan has to be anayzed throughn the prism of its history. Jinnah’s version of Pakistan was lost very early, followed by successive military regimes-the root cause of the present decadence. Can Islam be undone in Pakistan? The answer is no, but if people’s revolution to undo all institution of exploitation can be acheived, we will have no more of Ayub, Zia, Musharaf, Bhuttos, Gilani and Zardari’s. All thesis for a change is meaningless if we do not become a FREE nation.
We need to see the ordinary citizens make a peaceful protest against the military, establishment, corrupt politicians in every city till we have acheived the desired goal. I would like to quote few lines from a well known poet of Shakeb Jalali (Late)
Kitni Deewaren Giraogey Zara Soocho Tou
Har Gaam Peh Deewarain hin Deewarin Hain
Shahar Ka Naqsha Badal Dalo to Khuch Baat BaneyRecommend
Spot on Khalid Sahib, the close mind under certitude and singular identity is killing us collectively.Recommend
we choose to live in denial like ostriches with our heads in the sand,too scared to face the truth.The cause of all this violence,of the 35,000 lives lost is the intrusion of religion into our laws,into the fabric of our society.
When you have religious texts glorifying violence in the name of jihad,when you have religious text & quotes encouraging violence by promising 72 virgins to teenage boys to blow themselves up,than obviously the present condition will prevail.
our media,our school books have got to stop glorifying violence & making heroes out of violent,bloodthirsty people,be it current or people from centuries ago.
our books should have ‘ jeem for jahaz not jeem for jihad” ,have ‘ bay for ball not bay for bandook”.Recommend
our public gives utmost importance to performing mind numbing,rigid,repititive religious rituals in a foreign language as our people have deluded themselves into believing that the performance of rituals will guarantee them a place in heaven.
another of our favourites is to make our children rattafy religious text in a foreign language which the child doesn’t understand at all as we have convinced ourselves that this rattafication will lead to a place in heaven for our next 7 generations.
We’re in the 21st century,isn’t it time we started using our brains & looking at things critically & rationally,instead of getting brainwashed into believing things.Recommend
Athiests,agnostics,ex-muslims have as much right to live in pakistan as the muslims do.Atleast the athiests don’t go around killing people to force them to follow their beliefs.Recommend
@imran saeed:
our people are to illeterate to know what athiests,agnostics or ex-mulsims are.Even the o’level educated ones immediately immediately accuse any ex-muslim , atheist or agnostic of being yahodi or qadiani agents.These religious barbarians have no concept that a person could have been born a muslim in this country but then realised over time after introspection to become ex-muslim or athiest.
the fundoos just lump anyone who doesn’t agree with them into the category of a qadiani or yahodi.Recommend
Great article by Khalid Ahamd; I have always enjoyed his essays in The Friday Times. Intolerance has reached these levels because we read quran literally and do not try to see wider picture of coexistence and humanity. Whatever the continuing role of religion today, in philanthropy, in education, in ceremonial, in music, in personal comfort and hope, I say there is no obligation to believe. We can value things without God to tell us what is valuable. We know, without faith, that love is better than war, saving life is better than killing and mercy and forgiveness is more human than taking revenge, sometimes taking law in your own hands.Recommend
Dear Mr.Khaled, very good commentary. People need to understand that religion counts to little or nothing in the modern world. In the ever shrinking global village, effervascent religious aromas can be stiffling to others who are not from your ilk. I hope people understand this.Recommend
@kailash:
so trueRecommend
pl don’t add to our problems. we already have enough of them.Recommend
nice work! just keep criticising mate…keep it up…you seems so frustrated! so if someone ask, do you have any other example country which has the same public behaviour but is not as “badnaam” as Pakistan?Recommend
True Islam is a certainty. It is tolerant and fairly liberal. But who will define and identify this Islam among the proverbial 73 sects?Recommend
SPOT ON. Sir !!!Recommend
@T R Khan:
You don’t even seem to know whisch is true Islam.. So why do you think “True Islam’ is a certainty?Recommend
Pakistan of the dream of Mr Jinnah was a great concept,but it died with him.As a ardent native son of sub-continent,I have a dream,some day we all will realise our hidden potential and rise up again like a Phenix from our ashes,but for that to happen we have to hit rock bottom untill there is no for pits to fall.I’m not much of a “Believer’yet I respect every one of “FAITH’ to be free to “BELIEVe’ in return I ask them to leave me free to breath the free air and drink free water and love others as I see fit,Then I shall say “FREE AT LAST,FREE AT LAST’,can I expect this little tolerance and compassion from the “BELIEVERS’?Thanks for the thoughtful column,search within and you shall find and discover that “you are ok,I’m ok’Recommend
A good article, it shows how much negative energy has been created by the so called leaders, through their own interpretations of belief. This article to some may not be a solution to so many problems but its is any eye-opener to people who can reflect.Recommend
@Noise:
Did he say the same about Hindus, Jews, Sikhs, Atheists & other humans as well??Recommend
@Khalid sb, can’t this superb scribe of yours be translated in Urdu?Plz plz plz plz plzRecommend
This is such a well written piece! We need more voices like yours, Mr Khalid, loud and strong!Recommend
Bangladesh is a Muslim majority country with almost as many Muslims as Pakistan and have yet to read any terror related incidence with Bangladeshis. India too has as many Muslims as Pakistan who live peacefully with Hindus, Christians, Jains, Sikhs and Parsis. It is not the religion that is the cause of the intolerance but the deliberate poisoning of the minds through schools and madrassahs and media and maulvis that is the root cause of tis intolerance. The people in the other 2 country are also equally poor – so the excuse of poverty breeding intolerance also does not hold.
Without changing the root cause of intolerance, nothing will change.Recommend